Research Focus
Hillary F. Huber, PhD, is a primatologist specializing in nonhuman primate models of healthy growth, development, and aging. Dr. Huber conducts translational studies investigating how life experiences influence behavioral, cognitive, and motor function during the aging process. Her aims are to improve quality of life for humans and nonhuman primates through minimally invasive research. This research is essential to understanding why some people are predisposed to behavioral disorders, metabolic syndrome, neurological disease, sarcopenia, accelerated aging, and many other outcomes. Early identification of individuals at risk of later disease will change the way we prevent and treat aging, with personalized early intervention approaches.
Dr. Huber received her PhD in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University in 2014.
Inside the Lab
Dr. Huber works within the Ross Laboratory. The Ross Laboratory team is developing new phenotypic tools to assess nonhuman primate health and behavior as biomedical models of human disease. The team integrates behavioral, physiological, and molecular markers to explore mechanisms that influence developmental programming, reproduction, chronic disease, healthspan, and longevity in nonhuman primates.
Dr. Huber’s studies focus on the impact of early exposures on behavioral, cognitive, and motor development, and how they affect aging trajectories in nonhuman primates. Dr. Huber is centrally involved in the study of the effects of maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation on offspring development, programming changes to physiology with long-lasting effects on aging. One of her current projects is determining the lifespan and healthspan of a variety of nonhuman primates. To further improve characterization of NHP aging processes, Dr. Huber develops noninvasive markers of biological aging, such as gait speed, an important predictor of morbidity and mortality in human aging. As the nonhuman primates age, Dr. Huber studies how their early life exposures affect their physical and behavioral health in later adult life. Her goal to determine early life biomarkers of later life health will contribute to identification of novel therapeutic targets and promote personalized approaches to early intervention and prevention.
Main Technologies and Methods Used
- Cognitive testing
- Behavioral observation
- Walking speed measurement
- Morphometrics
- Databases
- Physiology: blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, circulating biomarkers